Wonder Woman

From my blog:

Before we get started the best way to approach this film is to think of it like a Greek play or story such as The Iliad. I’m sure when they did research for the film that was referenced quite frequently and it can also inform the viewer to think of it like that. It doesn’t really follow the traditional superhero movie plotline in that it’s almost totally cut off from the rest of the universe of other films. It also doesn’t really have an antagonist for most of it and they didn’t like equip the Germans with laser rifles yet still make them totally ineffectual a la the first Captain America (a dreadful film in comparison). This is just a battle of the gods while the humans help as best they can. Wonder Woman represents pseudo Athena and the Germans and their assistants are basically representing Ares, a classic duel. Sadly no Diomedes and the gods are far more willing to engage in direct combat (killing many) instead of only inspiring warriors to fight on their behalf.

Having said that the first hour and a half to hour and forty five minutes of the film only occasionally feature supernatural occurrences; instead we’re treated to a delightful origin story and how Wonder Woman discovers the world in its 1918 state. This leads to a lot of interesting humor based solely around how naïve she is since she basically grew up in a pseudo tribal society compared to the Otto von Bismarck/Hindenberg 1870-1918 european era. It’s like two simultaneous period pieces since the island of the Amazons is still more or less intact as a Greek paradise with swords and shields and so on, but at the same time you’ve got Chris Evans with his glorious trench gun (M1890 I believe?) and his usual bevy of racially diverse sidekicks. Though they at least picked interesting ethnic groups this time so that didn’t really seem too bad, always happy to see Native Americans in movies for instance.

The first major point where you run into the Greek play aspect is when they’re patrolling the trenches and then out of the blue Diana decides to just walk straight across No Man’s Land into a line of German machinegun fire; when you first see it it looks like it’s going to be corny as hell but they do some really awesome shots and the audience comes to believe in her invincibility. I knew going In she was a daughter of Zeus since she says that all the time in Injustice 2; but like Hercules is not totally invincible so you figure she might have some weakpoint or something, but it’s possible she’s 75% god or 100% (Hippolyta, Diana’s mother, is a daughter of Ares in Greek Mythology). The really cool thing about this scene is that she’s not really doing the offensive work, she’s basically giving the Germans a huge target and then the soldiers eventually decide to charge and take the other line. It is Gaea protecting her children or something like that, a tactically offensive move but solely done in a defensive (i.e. non-masculine) fashion.

Of course the vast majority of the action in the film is of the masculine beat the shit out of people kind, but Wonder Woman’s ability to draw out a different set of emotions from the audience than almost any other superhero movie is incredible. There’s actually impactful scenes, her character development is super interesting, and her relationship with multiple other characters actually has some depth to it. The third act is probably where the film will get criticized the most, but I think it really works well; Diana’s speeches about Love and so on should be silly but since it’s that battle of Greek Gods context where basically everything is an absurdist clash of Masculine and Feminine values it pulls it off. The main “surprise” of the ending sequence is pretty predictable because of the psychological issues that arise if that doesn’t happen; but I still think it works tremendously well as an agency for Diana to further develop her powers.

There are a few minor issues with the film, the first is that the Germans in WWI were not particularly evil or villainous. The war was essentially started by terrorists (a convenient Casus Belli), not an aggressive invasion of Poland or anything; and while they did massacre millions of soldiers and civilians it was more or less indiscriminate with regard to race/ethnicity (and in this first world society where bombing third world countries is cool, that’s okay too I guess), and Kaiser Wilhelm was kind of just a figurehead and not a lunatic. At the start of the film I was really hoping the Germans would be who WW was helping or something, but alas; kind of just followed the generic WW2 arc in that regard (reminder the best war film ever All Quiet on the Western Front is told from the German perspective). The other issue is with regard to the ending theoretically negating the need for another ridiculously massive war, but WWII still happened. This is also kind of a positive though because there is no obvious sequel bait whatsoever, naturally this probably means the next one will be set in modern day and be far less interesting, but one can always hope they do a WWII movie and then a Korean War movie, Vietnam, Iraq (Body of Lies style), and Mexican Drug Cartel Wars (Sicario style). If they never make a sequel (yeah, right) this is probably the best standalone Superhero movie ever as far as needing no prior films to set it up at all and nothing afterward that demanded its existence.

I'm not usually into superhero movies but I saw this with a friend and I actually enjoyed it a lot. Maybe my favorite super hero movie. It reminded me of the best Star Wars movies for some reason.

@dagas: You might like the first Guardians of the Galaxy if you want a Star Wars movie; it is almost exactly that.

I absolutely love this film. I gave it a 5/5 on the site I work for

I thought it was a pretty fun ride, too! The scene of her marching across No Man's Land was awesome, and almost single-handedly liberating the village was a real fist-pump moment. There was an air of power to her that not a lot of superheroes have and her presence once she got rolling was a force to be reckoned with.

Some parts of it, like the explanation of the good/evil dichotomy of man, weren't as graceful as Gadot's performance. I've noticed that a lot of Snyder films fumble with what should be pretty basic philosophy and this film was no different. Particularly, at the end of the film, Chris Pine trying to explain that all people - including him, who she thought of as a friend - can be bad was sort of a flat moment in what should have been a revelation for the characters. He just sort of huffs and stammers out half-thoughts and then says he needs to leave, which undercut the moment and following battle pretty significantly. Also, I noticed a few hanging threads that bothered me. I feel like the superpower-gas sort of came out of nowhere and I was waiting for an explanation on that. Charlie never got a chance to shine as a sniper, even during the final battle when he was desperately scrounging for one more bullet for his gun. Pines' secretary also completely vanishes despite being tasked with running the mission.

With that being said, it had enough of a heart to it that it was fun to watch, and it certainly didn't feel as long as it actually was. The bar scene and the liberated village both reminded me of Ayer's work on Fury, the rapport between Gadot and Pines was pretty enjoyable to see, and all of the performances shone through what was sometimes clumsy writing. It's definitely a big step in the right direction for DC, and it makes me sad that Justice League is going to steal away this opportunity to develop for the other major DC superheroes.

I thought it was good, but man, some of that green screen was real bad.

I really really liked it. Wonder Woman is a super hero I never paid much attention to but she seems cool. She doesn't have superman invincibility right? She's just really good at deflecting stuff and has good healing? Please tell me its so, i'm scared to check Comic Vine. Invulnerability is the worst super power =(

Also, why is London a place in the film? I thought DC's whole thing was not using real places.

I enjoyed it but I think a lot of the positive buzz for the movie is due to the lackluster DC movies before it. It's on the same level as a Doctor Strange or Ant Man for me.

Basically this. Best DC movie by far. Still suffers from the same problems though e.g. PG13 live action dragon ball Z fights look bad and are just lame. The more ''grounded'' action scenes of act 1 and 2 are great. The one in act 3 is terrible.

So yeah, good movie, doesn't bring my hopes up for the rest of the franchise though since

A: the story is irrelevant to the larger universe.

B: Zack Snyder

C: They're still stuck with god characters who can only do green screen heavy PG13 dragon ball Z fights without any stakes or tension.

This movie is a 3/5 which makes it a 5/5 as far as DC movies go. And that's a generous 3/5 given the rocky start and laughably bad final act.

@pyrodactyl: Yep, that about sums it up for me as well. Even by superhero movies, I thought the act 3 fight was pretty lame.

@mikemcn: Goth London? Lontropolis?

I just saw this today and honestly I'm not quite sure where all the praise is coming from. I thought it was a decent, if not very by-the-books, origins superhero movie. It has the same slow start, laughably obvious plot twist, and cringy/corny superhero "posing" shots we so often see in the Marvel flicks. Overall it's not bad, but it's not especially great either. As some have stated above, the CGI in places was a little dodgy, especially in the latter parts of the film. The villain was almost cartoony..in fact all the villains were extremely cartoony - that scene where the general and ..ugh.. Dr. Poison.. throw the gas canister in the room, then look at each other and cackle with glee? I mean c'mon.. I'm most confused about how the same people that hated Batman V Superman appear to be really enjoying this, as much of the pacing and style is extremely similar to that movie. Gal Gadot was better than I expected but I still think they could have cast that role much better. The heavy accent while fitting given how the movie plays out, sort of eliminates any nuance in dialog as it just doesn't come across the same way.

Wonder Woman is a decent, non offensive, summer action flick. Big step forward for female superheroes in leading roles, of which there have been basically none so far. As far as a step forward for DC? As a person that didn't find the previous DC flicks particularly awful (thought Superman was fine and BvS had some cool moments in it) I honestly think it's par for the course - a little darker than Marvel (both thematically and stylistically) with a bit less humor and a more somber tone overall. As always origin flicks are kind of a chore to get through for the first 30-50 minutes, the storytelling segment was particularly lame and could have been done in a less hamfisted way, but once the action got going it kept a decent pace throughout. Chris Pine was really good as a foil for Wonder Womans childish naivete. If anything this movie has me a lot more excited to see Justice League now that she will be playing an older and wiser version of herself.

EDIT: My favorite part of the film was the awesome new DC intro.

You and I are on the same page

Ares was so freaking dumb and that 'twist' was almost as bad as the Mandarin twist in IM3..

Overall I thought the movie was good, not great.

The City of Gothames?

With such a restricted nomenclature, no wonder DC just settled on London.

Gal gadot kicked it!

Wonder Woman is at least heartfelt and optimistic. It also has a good sense of humor in places and likable characters. The plot is straight forward and breezy with some totally alright sequences.

BvS is a self serious slog. Its plot is nothing short of a convoluted clusterfuck. All the characters are stupid AND completly unlikable. It's so dark and brooding I'm surprised the screen writer isn't a 13 year old boy. And that's on top of all the problems also present in Wonder Woman.

@pyrodactyl: What you call heartfelt and optimistic I'd call predictable and, if I was being nice, well tread territory; if I was being less nice and more realistic I'd call it lazy and uninspired. Oh the horrors of war, but there is good in all our hearts. DC movies don't need to be light and goofy, you already have Marvel filling that gap quite nicely, let them be dark and brooding and more mature than the sugar coated drama of Avengers.

But you know different strokes for different folks. It was fine, but incredibly safe and predictable, and surprisingly cliched.

@humanity:You can't just put some filters on, have all your characters be sad and brooding, set your movie at night and call it mature. BvS is a dumb pretentious mess. If you want to see what a dark, mature super hero movie looks like you can watch Logan.

BvS didn't have pacing. It didn't even have a cohesive script. It was borderline incoherent.

Saying Wonder Woman's and BvS' pacing are similar is completely wrong. BvS' script is a tornado of a mess. The majority of people who saw the movie would agree with that. By the way, that's the biggest factor- the script. Wonder Woman's script was actually well paced and coherent. BvS and Suicide Squad are not. ESPECIALLY BvS. Watching that is like watching a movie that was made on another planet. God that movie was horrible.

EDIT: @pyrodactyl is on point

@frostyryan: Batman v Superman had so many major plot holes and dumb narrative elements that they actually impacted my ability to understand the story, or at the very least were extremely distracting. I've never seen a big-budget major studio film that was so incoherent and incompetent in so many ways. It was like a high school fan film project but with a massive budget.

I'm surprised to see people like this based off of DC's recent stuff. From the trailers I've seen it has that weird dark filter over everything like the other recent DC movies. Even when it's supposed to be daytime everything looks dark. Even the image posted above seems off to me. I don't like the way any of the DC stuff looks with that filter or whatever it is they do, but I can look past that if the rest of the movie is good/decent.

@metalbaofu: I was surprise too. The trailers didn't do anything for me but the movie was genuinely good. Fun and breezy with the classic super hero third act problem.

BvS is one of the most baffling movies of its caliber I've ever seen. I had no idea what was going on for like the first hour and a half of that movie. Watching that movie was like watching the end of 2001 A Space Odyssey. My brain turned to mush trying to keep up with all the disjointed scenes.

@pyrodactyl said:

Sums it up perfectly.

@metalbaofu: well since it's set in world war 1 the darkness makes alot of sense. Lots of shelled, muddy battlefields and villages. But Wonder Woman herself and the island she comes from stand out really sharply from the earth tones of the rest of the movie. I think it really works well, at least in this film!

@pyrodactyl: I'm not gonna derail the thread into why some people hate BvS with a passion but I also don't think its nearly as simple as you try to make it appear. I mean I respect your opinion even if I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but it's not just hurr, filters, night, movie ruined hurr.

That saidback on topic, Wonder Woman is completely inoffensive and through that unfortunately somewhat boring in this portrayal. At the end of the film there isn't really much to talk about except getting into the numerous absurdities which unfortunately just bring down the experience in retrospect. I mean one of the stand out oddities to me is that WW canonically introduces Greek gods into this "serious" movie universe. Suspension of disbelief is everything, and I can block a lot of things out (I mean obviously since I don't mind BvS nearly as much as the awful Age of Ultron) but in the midst of aliens attacking Earth and Superman dying and all this gravitas being thrown at the viewer, all this impending peril, now in the back of my head I get to think that Zeus is just hanging out there somewhere, possibly as a guy with a big mustache.

The way no one seems to acknowledge that Wonder Woman is a superhuman being and looks absurd in that red and blue outfit on the battlefield was also constantly pulling me out of the experience. Everyone just kinda shrugs like this stuff happens every day. It's almost as if they all just think that Yah, she IS a REALLY good secretary! That outfit too..man. It was touched upon in some video I watched how brown her costume appeared in BvS, and I really wish they turned the saturation down here. Better yet her outfit should have been a different color and at the end of the film something should have affected it's coloring into the iconic red and blue because boy oh boy did it not work. Here are these shellshocked troops in the trenches in dirty rags and then this red and blue woman goes to take on no mans land (which consists of 12 German soldiers by the way) and everyone is just like Hooray! Like this sort of thing happens every day.

I could go on and on, but I don't want to sound too down on it since I honestly thought it wasn't bad, just par for the course, as expected. Another one of those. It's this very plain nature of it that leads me to start nitpicking on the details because I was never really engrossed in the experience all that much - stuff was just kinda happening on the screen with the typical big CGI finish that looked like a bad boss battle from a God of War game - nor does it warrant deeper discussion on any level.

I feel like this is basically what the ideology for alot of the Captain America films try to capture, but this does it much better in my own opinion. I guess with Captain America, it's just too steeped in "murrica rah rah" that any message of what it means to be a 'hero' is overshadowed by U.S. driven ideas of patriotism. The use of World War 1 was pretty great because it involved so many different nations and people and the calamity of it all that leaves with no feelings of patriotism, which I think is a nice change for once in these war setting movies. Yeah they still had to make a couple Germans as the absolute evil villains, but I still enjoyed the fact that the two were pretty far removed from the overall hierarchy of the military so it seemed like they were just a bunch of crazies that were in power. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie as silly and predictable as the final battle was, it's just a great wholesome super hero movie.

I need to see the movie before I can really agree/disagree, obviously, but that makes sense. It'd be nice if they did it for this movie/things that had a reason to look like that, but they do it in everything they've been putting out. If they stick people in a country field in the middle of the day, it would look like they had some weird shadow being cast on everything or something. Just throws me off, and feels like they do it just because it makes it "dark and gritty, unlike those other superhero guys."

When they were just about to leave for the Western Front and Diana was seeing the shellshocked, the wounded and maimed it was fucking brutal and when they got to the trenches it finally hit me that this is being shown in a god damn comic book movie. Say what you will about the over-saturation of the comic book movie genre, but I'm sorta glad it still hasn't lost momentum just yet.

I enjoyed the movie overall, but was pretty let down by the final act, especially with Nigel Thornberry Ares. I can buy it if he was just possessing an Englishman but when they had David Thewlis in the flashback as prime Ares I fucking lost it, holy hell it was bad. The movie also didn't fully explained why Diana abandoned humanity for 100 years as stated in BvS considering she left the war on pretty good terms with mankind.

@probablytuna: Yah man.. I get that this is Ares taking on a much more conniving and appropriate form in the "present" so to speak, but to see him back in the day with the same shabby haircut and mustache was really ridiculous. THATS the God of War? Uncle Lou over there?

I gotta say though as cliched and a little cringy as it was to see Wonder Woman walk up that ladder in slow-mo with heroic music building up during the no-mans-land bit, the moment shortly thereafter where she's crouched down behind her shield deflecting bullets was really cinematic and well done. Special effects were on-point. Come to think of it the last movie with stylized trench-warfare that I can recall is, of all movies, Sucker Punch - another much beloved film on these boards.

That entire segment where she storms the town is also pretty neat as there is some nice choreography on display. Although for a female superhero that wears a skirt of sorts, it was a real weird choice for the martial arts expert on set to adapt this fighting style that basically revolved around flipping around with your legs splayed wide open. The knee slides were pretty cool.

Say what you will of Max Landis, but the changes he proposed would've made the third act much better. I disagree with adding a Amazonian best friend for Diana but everything else would've fit into the movie seamlessly.

@whitestripes09: The first Captain America is terrible compared to Wonder Woman while aiming to do roughly the same thing; the second one is a totally different (really good) movie, the third one is basically an avengers movie that kind of sucks (and essentially nothing happens).

Wonder Woman is generally around equal to Superman in terms of vulnerability, the difference is usually Diana is vulnerable to cutting and stabbing injuries.

As for real places, DC has them all, it's just they have a few fake American cities that they use as deconstructions of real places but real cities do exist. In the same way, Marvel have fake countries like Latvaria and Wakanda.

Besides the ending, which kind of loses focus and goes full Dragonball Z, the movie was great. I am very satisfied for a few reasons. The first being that the people involved with the creation of the film - the director, actors, writers, everyone - have a firm grasp of who Diana is as a character at her core and managed to adapt that to the screen. Unlike other DCEU films, which seem to want to bend the characters to fit a narrative idea (grimdark Superman and his selfish parents come to mind) Diana and her supporting cast are pretty much straight adaptations of the most iconic and heroic versions of their comic/animated counterparts. Second, the movie was a successful origin story that took even the most outlandish bits of WW lore and made them palatable and understandable. It managed to have fun stuff for WW super fans, but certainly wasn't too laser focused on being for those fans, but for everyone. Third, the supporting cast, especially Steve Trevor, while not the most fully realized movie characters, were way more fleshed out than in other comic book movies. Everyone had a little moment to shine, everyone had a purpose, at least so far as I could gather. They made good use of the screen time they gave to actors, and that was nice.

Now I want to take a moment and focus on Steve Trevor and the romantic stuff. It was mild, didn't drown out the other parts of the movie, and I liked it quite a bit. Most romantic interests in these movies tend to be pretty lame, perfunctory even. I think that this movie at least injected a little bit of purpose into the subplot. Her relationship with Trevor influenced her final decisions concerning her relationship with all of mankind. I think having the ending kind of degrade into a CGI slug fest did a disservice to that message, but I felt like the moments at the end with Steve Trevor hit me emotionally, more so than in other similar movies. I honestly teared up, while I rolled my eyes when Gwen Stacy met her fate in the last Spider-Man movie. That's the difference between a relationship handled with some amount of care and sensitivity, in my opinion, versus one handled not so well. I think I credit the writing (at least with what Trevor said) and the acting. Chris Pine and Gal Gadot were very good and had very good chemistry. It becomes really apparent just how good that chemistry was when you compare it to other comic book films, like Superman Returns, Man of Steel, a bunch of Marvel movies besides the relationship between Captain America and Peggy Carter, etc.....

Comparing this to other comic book movies this year, it is right in the middle between Logan, which was pretty amazing, and GotG Vol. 2 which was totally okay but didn't really knock my socks off like the first one did. WW certainly was more of a full, enjoyable experience for me, though I admit that may be due to my love of the character paired with the quality of the movie itself.

Wonder Woman is not perfect. The ending was messy and anime, but I liked the idea in there about how humanity is worth being heroic for. Boiling it down to "love" is a bit on the nose, but the sentiment is something that I think is sorely lacking in the other DCEU films. The villains were pretty much nonexistent, which was a shame. I liked the idea of Doctor Poison being realized in live action, but then they barely did anything with her. Ares was neat and the twist of who he was was also pretty neat but not shocking or anything,. He was a bit silly looking, until he put on his normal comic book armor, which I thought was cool. Other than that, I think it had a lot more hits than misses. I really want to see it again soon. I think I may like it even more if I get a chance to savor it knowing what is coming. I would put this on the level with something like the first Iron Man. Not perfect but a really good adaptation of an iconic character that gets most everything right.

Pretty decent. Fun, charming, and most of the action was exciting. It was the best of DC's movies so far in that it was actually about a superhero and not a hyper-violent, self-centered, disaffected objectivist who only saves people when it suits him.

Most of it is so good that the CGI horror show that is the last 20 minutes is even more of a drag.

I liked the movie a fair bit despite some of the weird stuttering pacing. I totally agree with some of comments that it felt a lot like BvS in that regard, even if the plot was definitely more coherent.

I have two gripes that can basically be ignored if you just accept that you're watching a summer blockbuster, but they were still enough to really pull me out of the movie.

First, it's really jarring to hear her talk about how the Germans aren't actually evil and she just needs to kill Ares to save them and then she proceeds to straight up murder like 50 dudes. And then after that, even as their blood is soaking into the ground around her, she's right back to "No Chris Pine, you don't get it. It's not men that are bad, it's Ares."

Second, it's a really good thing it wasn't a German pilot that crashed near the island while running from British/Allied forces because it would have been a real awkward conversation with the Allies after the Amazonians slaughtered those soldiers without hesitation.

Still enjoyed the movie over all, and thought it was probably the best DC movie since the Nolan ...Batmans? Batmen?

@fredchuckdave: Winter Soldier was Marvels laughable attempt at making a serious superhero movie, which was basically what a 12 year old would consider a "serious movie" with terrible pacing that made it seem to drag on twice as long as it did. The first Captain America at least knew what it was and leaned into it all the way. It was completely in Marvels wheelhouse as it never took itself seriously for more than 5 minutes at a time. The whole Bucky subplot that has now bled into Avengers is pretty terrible as Marvelnis just not good at this stuff. Most recently they tried it in Guardians Vol.2 and just when you thought maybe they had it, nope, the attention span is just not there to hold a somber scene for more than 10 seconds.

Thank you for the clarification, I will accept stabbing/cutting wounds as an adequate vulnerability. In this movie she got like scratched during the beach fight and had some blood but healed fast so I was hoping something like that would be the case. But then she also turns out to kind of just be a god. I'll eliminate that from my head canon though.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but reading this it sounds like you're living in some alternate dimension. Winter Soldier is widely considered one of the best Marvel movies up there with Avengers 1 and Guardians of the Galaxy. It's a tense engaging movie with some very character appropriate themes, fun, very well directed, grounded action scenes and likable characters. Like every super hero movie, it's not perfect, but it's definitely a high point for the genre.

@pyrodactyl: Agreed again. I haven't even a shred of a clue how Winter Soldier is a "laughable" attempt at a "serious" movie and BvS somehow isn't.

Winter Soldier has a forward moving, coherent story, and character development. BvS is a bunch of disjointed scenes with psychotic characters.

I have to ask where is the Amazon island somewhere off the Ottoman empire but a days boat ride to London.

It's somewhat implied it took a while (Pine phoned his secretary so they definitely stopped somewhere on the way to London). The editing is super misleading there though.

@pyrodactyl: Of course people are entitled to their own opinions. Logan is a great example of a serious movie for instance, and that's only because Fox was behind that and because the actors really got behind that movie in a real way. Winter Soldier in comparison is an adolescents take on that same formula, and it's not very good at that, trying to convey an emotional story about friendship while also shoving in all the jokes and action at the same time. I heard all the positive buzz behind it at the time and was absolutely baffled by it as I sat through that thing. But hey people can like what they like I guess - most Marvel movies I find fairly forgettable. They're made in a very specific way that is really pretty but ring absolutely hollow on an emotional level to me anyway that I just don't find engrossing st all. I can thankfully confirm that im not from an alien planet or an alternate dimension though; it's just a big world with millions of people out there that have very individual tastes that's all. Perhaps because I'm an illustrator, and I also tend to create something from nothing, I to look at these things from a different angle and appreciate them for different elements. Wonder Woman is a step in the right direction when it comes to telling more emotionally driven stories I think and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what it has to offer now that we've moved past the origin story and the director has gone on record saying she wants the sequel to take place in the states. I'm also really curious if they will start trying to seed some sort of romance between her and Bruce Wayne, which would be really interesting to see as they're already partnered up in a way. The implications and consequences of basically a God entering into a relationship with this broken shell of a man would be awesome to explore in a way that the Superman/Lois Lane arc really isn't.

Hunh. Yeah.

This movie ain't great.

Gal Gadot was a pretty terrible Wonder Woman (characterization, acting, appearance), the action was hokey and laughably self-serious, the story was trite (which is a step forward for the DCCU). Amazons all sound like Sokovians, they went with a super doe-eyed Diana (forgivable being an origin story, but still, goddamn), the romance started well but quickly turned perfunctory, the combat flips were fun but no man's land and beyond were lame as fuck, her arc felt shallow and unrefined.

But it's competently made and mostly coherent. Chris Pine is a great actor and was great in this, which sucked cause it's a Wonder Woman movie, and David Thewlis was faaaaaaaaaaaantastic as a mustachioed wizard Satan Ares clad in tin foil. Fantastic in the most wonderfully silly way. That whole final fight probably would've been better if I didn't get the feeling it was going for super cool. Also, Poison Lady Doctor Mask Face looked cool.

Watching it again knowing how dumb it is might make it more enjoyable. I tried to watch it before the hype raised my expectations too much, but I was expecting at least the level of generically Marvel good/forgettable (Thor 2, Iron Man 2, etc.), and it couldn't even break into that.

Man, it's funny that this is the straw the broke the camel's back and now has me looking back on the entirety of the DCCU (or whatever they're calling it) and actually being a bit mad at how shit it is. Before I was just like "ohh, it's fine, let them take their different spin on DC," but now it's like fuck dude, this who thing coulda been so much better. Watching Suicide Squad yesterday probably didn't help.

:\

@pyrodactyl: @memonk: I feel like it was loosely implied they were between Germany and the UK, which is hilarious. Random movie editing thing though: The plane scenes camera angles suggest he's flying south.

I haven't seen it yet, but I definitely want to see it! I've heard mixed things, but I think there is so much potential in the DC universe, and after BvS and Suicide Squad... I'm really hoping I enjoy this!

i thought this was about on the level of pretty much 90% of Marvel movies, good fun but nothing spectacularly memorable. they meant well and could have done some interesting things on the nature of war but it came off pretty ham-fisted. i thought gal gadot and chris pine both did well with their roles and material, though there was a disconnect with how naiive and pandering wonder woman could be versus her acting all tough and no nonsense in other scenes. the end was just kinda mind numbing and undermined the aforementioned hamfisted bits that could have rang more true (you can't kill war forever!!! oh wait, you sorta can!!!). their little army band was pretty much throwaway, as well.

still seems like a step in the right direction for DC. was mostly fun, too, which seems like a good change of pace.

i was waiting for the hail of gunfire to shear off her legs in the no man's land scene, honestly.

It was definitely one of the best DC movies in the past decade or so, but it followed the Marvel formula to a fault (and to the letter).

I gotta say I was a bit unhappy to see they still had the empowered female title character fall hopelessly in love with the very first man she ever encounters. I went in to the film hoping they'd not toss Wonder Woman straight into a romance situation, but I guess that was a foolish wish.

Dying to see this movie. And how that really girl power is up. As a woman myself. But still heard a lot of great reviews for this movie.